To Choose Peace (Jacob The Gentleman)

This is a guest post from Jacob The Gentleman who runs a great blog over at The Gentleman’s Club A place where you can go to learn a variety of topics relating to manhood. The Gentleman’s Club is the place where “masculinity, ambition, and sophistication meet”. If you want to know how to be a modern gentleman then be sure to check it out. You can also follow Jacob on Twitter here, for updates about the site and general wisdom. If you’ve been around Return of Kings you’ll recognize Jacob as the famous commenter Unabashed who has been sharing his wisdom with the RoK crowd for quite some time. Here he shared some of his wisdom with us. Enjoy.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the phrase “violence is never the answer” typically uttered by liberals living in gated communities. Their virtue signaling and moral high ground hide a bitter truth that they either can’t see or don’t realize: They aren’t choosing peace and they aren’t any more morally superior or nobler than anyone else. While I have no problem with those who choose peaceful resolutions to issues, we’re seeing more and more people “choosing” peace because they have no other option.

What does this mean?

Let me present you with a scenario. You’re walking down the street enjoying the day, minding your own business. As you walk by a park, a pretty little number in Daisy Dukes catches your eye. You continue to walk, admiring the view, when all of a sudden, BAM! You just walked into an 8 year old kid, knocking him over. Feeling embarrassed, you help him up and ask him if he’s all right. He glares at you and says, “You’re lucky I got some place to be or I’d kick your ass.”

What’s your reaction? If you’re like most people, you’d probably start laughing at the absurdity of this little child inflicting any sort of violence on you.

Now let’s tweak the scenario a bit. Instead of an 8 year old boy, you just knocked over this guy:

You’d probably be a lot more relieved (and thankful) if he decided not to teach you a lesson. So what’s the difference in these two scenarios? Quite simply, while one could easily follow through with the threat of turning you into a greasy spot on the pavement, the other couldn’t even scuff your shoes.

Those who obviously lack the capacity of inflicting violence are not in a position to compromise with others. They are at the mercy of the other person to not completely destroy them. As you probably now realize, the weak really do not have a choice in choosing peace. They choose peace because, for them, there’s no other options available to them.

In a pathetic attempt to save face, they resort to taking the moral high ground and claim they are being nobler than the barbaric opposition all the while quaking in their boots hoping someone doesn’t call their bluff.

They are sheep. Victims just waiting to be attacked.

Be a Man with Choices

A man with the true moral high ground has the capacity to utterly demolish their opposition but has the reservation not to. So the question now becomes how do you become a man with a legitimate choice between violence and peace?

Some of the answers are pretty common sense, but some require adopting specific principles and mindsets. Even with the easily understood answers, there’s certain practices you will want to focus on. So without further ado, let’s dive in:

Physical Power

Let’s be honest, this is probably the first thing that came to most of your minds when this subject was brought up. I don’t care what other skills you have, you must have a strong, functional body that is capable of performing the tasks you’re demanding of it. You will primarily want to focus on raw, explosive power and strength. Perform compound lifts mixing up the weight/rep schemes regularly. Be sure to throw in some HIIT routines and the occasional cardio sessions (but keep them fairly short) as well.

Physical Training

You’re probably thinking what the difference is between this section and the previous one. Put simply, once you start packing on the muscle, you need to begin learning how to use it to its utmost potential.

Enter martial arts.

For the sake of brevity, we’re not going to cover every martial art out there. Just be sure to find a style that covers all ranges of fighting from weapons to ground grappling and everything in between. If you must, train in multiple styles of martial arts to shore up weak spots. Also be sure to find a school that spars regularly. To kick and punch on pads all day only helps build a false sense of security. As Bruce Lee famously said, “Boards don’t hit back” and neither to kicking pads.

Mindset

The body and mind were always meant to work together. If the mind is weak, the body will not perform as desired. You must spend serious time pondering on your life, values, and ambitions. Only by truly understanding yourself and your goals will you begin to know when it is best to fight and when it would be better to find more amicable solutions. The man that finds any reason to fight is a fire that burns bright but is quickly snuffed out.

Know your values and your deep moral convictions so you know how you wish to act when faced with the decision between fighting or backing off. You don’t want to be trying to ponder these things in the midst of a situation that’s about to violently erupt. Your body and mind must both be completely ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

You must not fear confrontation but you must also not fear backing down for fear of being labeled a coward or weak.

Conclusion

To be completely honest, I used to fear getting in a fight. What if I got my ass kicked? What if I got in trouble? I avoided any and all confrontations up until this day. That’s right, I have never been in a fight outside of martial arts tournaments. That being said, I no longer fear the idea of getting into a fight because I know what things I’m willing to fight for (family, friends, my community, etc). I have already made the decision that if something is worth me getting into a fight for, then I will fight with all the ferocity I can muster. I also continue to train my body to be absolutely ready for whatever happens.

In closing I want to leave you with a thought experiment. Read the following sentence and really visualize saying it to a person who is aggressively confronting you:

“Please stop and leave me alone.”

Read this sentence as a weak person who has never worked out, never trained, and does not have strong convictions.

Now read it again as someone who is strong both physically and mentally.

They sound different, don’t they?

You’re tone is different.

Your body posture is different.

The effect it has on the other person resonates on completely different levels.

Which version do you prefer?

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